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Summary of the impact

Joan Beal's research on dialect and identity has had far-reaching
educational impact. Her publications are widely used in other HEIs (both
in the UK and abroad) and in secondary school teaching, with economic
benefits for publishers. She has also influenced curriculum reform through
her consultancy for AQA, the largest provider of academic qualifications
for 14-19 year olds in the UK. Beyond education, her role as a media
commentator and as a consultant for the British Library Sociolinguistics
& Education department has led to greater public understanding of the
significance, and persistence, of dialect as a means of constructing and
expressing identity.

Underpinning research

The underpinning research is the body of work on dialect and identity
conducted by Beal and doctoral students under her supervision from the
time of her appointment at the University of Sheffield in 2001, initially
as Senior Lecturer and Director of the National Centre for English
Cultural Tradition (NATCECT) and, since 2005, as Professor of English
Language.

Much of Beal's research has focussed on the typology and description of
regional dialects, past and present, and she has contributed significantly
to research on dialect and identity, contradicting the prevailing rhetoric
of dialect levelling and loss by providing historical and contemporary
evidence for heightened awareness both of the potential loss of
regionally/ locally distinctive dialect features and of the power of
specific `enregistered' or `stereotypical' features to perform and express
identity (see R3, R4, R5). Her research demonstrates that at times of
accelerated social and geographical mobility, such as the late nineteenth
century, dialect contact created an enhanced awareness of social and
regional dialect differences and led both to levelling and loss of
traditional dialects and to the creation of new dialects and identities in
emerging towns and cities. This has provided a much-needed historical
perspective to studies of variation and change in present-day English,
challenging dominant accounts of the rise of `Estuary English' and the
assumed impending death of other regional dialects in the context of
globalisation.

As Director of NATCECT, Beal was responsible for curating and developing
the Archives of Cultural Tradition until their transfer to the
University's Special Collections in Western Bank Library in January 2009.
This collection includes recordings of Sheffield dialect made in the early
1980s, approximately 18 hours of which Beal had transcribed with the aid
of a £4,500 grant from the British Academy (2002). This material has since
been used as a historical comparator to data on contemporary Sheffield
dialect collected more recently by doctoral students under Beal's
supervision, research which has shown the rapidity of some local dialect
change.

Beal's reputation as the leading expert on English dialects and
especially those of the North of England has been consolidated in a number
of publications. She wrote the chapter on dialects of the North of England
in Varieties of English (2008), the definitive handbook of
dialects of English (R6), and has published four books on English
dialects: English in Modern Times (2004) is the first book
dedicated to the history of English in this period; Language and
Region (2006) is an introductory textbook for the study of dialects,
designed for A-level students; An Introduction to Regional Englishes
(2010) is a more advanced introduction designed for university students
and researchers; and Urban North-Eastern Englishes (2012) is the
first full account of urban dialects in the north-east of England. Beal's
role in building this field of studies is illustrated by the fact that one
of the co-authors of this last book (Burbano-Elizondo) is a former PhD
student (completion 2008).

R4. Beal, J. (2009), `"You're not from New York City, you're from
Rotherham': dialect and identity in UK "Indie" Music', Journal of
English Linguistics 37: 223-240.

R5. Beal, J. (2004), English in Modern Times 1700-1945. London:
Arnold. [Returned RAE2008]

R6. Beal, J. (2006), Language and Region. London: Routledge.

All articles appeared in peer-reviewed journals; all books are published
by academic presses which also institute policies of peer-review.

Details of the impact

Beal's research into the history of English in the Late Modern period
(1700-1945) and into dialect and identity in the North of England has
changed public understanding of the relationships between language
development, identity and local dialect, and she is now regarded as a
leading expert in this field. Her work with the collections in the
Archives of Cultural Tradition established the reputation of the School of
English at the University of Sheffield as a centre for the study of
dialect and local identity, which has aided the dissemination and reach of
her work.

Impact on education

One important area of impact has been on the teaching of English Language
in schools. Knowledge of language change is part of the English Language
curriculum in primary and secondary schools, and outputs from Beal's
research have been extensively used by teachers and students. Beal's Language
and Region [R6] is part of Routledge's `Intertext' series, developed
as text-books for A-level English language. It has been recommended by AQA
in their Teacher Resource Bank [S3]. Beal's research is also acknowledged
as an influence on the development of `All Talk', a BT-sponsored resource
for the spoken language component of GCSE English launched in 2011 [S4,
S5]. In a downloadable reading list on this website, Language and
Region is recommended as a key book to teachers. 'All Talk' went out
to every maintained school in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (well
over 4,000). This resource was short-listed for a 2012 Nominet Internet
Award and, as of 31 July 2013, had 5,643 subscribed members. Beal's 2004
monograph English in Modern Times [R5] is also used to teach the
component on language change for A-Level English language. As one of the
senior examiners for AQA writes, `Professor Beal's work on language and
region, exemplified by her Intertext book on this topic, has been very
supportive of 16-19 English Language study. Her work has offered school
and college English departments some invaluable resources. It has also
informed assessment work by examination boards: for example, A Level
English Language examiners at AQA have drawn insights from her work in
order to construct their examination papers' [S2].

Beal's books, Language and Region, Introduction to Regional
Englishes, English in Modern Times, and The English
Language (2012), are also key texts for undergraduate courses, used
in HEIs across the UK (e.g. Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Sussex, UCL) and
Europe (including Bergen, Freiburg, Santiago de Compostela, Trento,
Uppsala). As one reviewer commented of Language and Region, `it
brings the study of dialect in line with the global realities of the
present day, and [...], in doing so, it exposes undergraduates to
functions of dialect within popular culture, tourism and even marketing';
the book is praised for being `practical throughout, aiming at making
students aware of the features, functions and uses of their own local
dialect and even helping them take the first steps in research on the
field' (Juan Camilo Conde Silvestre, Atlantis Journal, 29.1,
2007).

Impact on educational policy

Beal's standing in the field, and the acknowledged importance of her work
as teaching resources, led to her appointment in 2012 as a consultant to
AQA on curriculum reform, reviewing the national content of the A-Level in
English Language and working to improve transition planning between
post-sixteen and undergraduate courses. Beal delivered the keynote address
at AQA's stakeholder conference in September 2012. The Head of English at
AQA [S1] acknowledges the impact on their policy of the insight that Beal
provided into historical perceptions of — and approaches to — linguistic
`correctness', and to the teaching and assessment of grammar. This
historicised context (which shows how grammatical rules are continually
shifting and contested) has led to AQA rethinking how linguistic
competency is assessed; in particular, they are committed to considering a
candidate's ability to apply (rather than simply replicate) grammatical
rules and to developing more progressive and creative ways of doing this
(e.g. through disambiguation of different meanings).

Economic impact for publishers

Beal's books on language are written with a wide readership in mind and,
as a result, have wide appeal. To 31 July 2013, Language and Region
had, for example, sold over 1,440 copies in paperback.

Impact on public understanding of issues of language and identity

Research into dialect and identity is of considerable interest outside
the academy, and Beal's public profile is evidence of her standing as a
leading authority on dialect and identity in the UK. She was a member of
the advisory panel for the British Library's `Voices of the UK' project
(2009-12), which makes publicly available significant amounts of data from
a nationwide survey of spoken English since the 1950s, for non-specialist
users as well as trained researchers. Beal played a crucial role in
advising the curators of this project about the description,
transcription, and interpretation of vernacular speech data. Material from
`Voices of the UK' archive, and interpretative information about it,
featured prominently in the British Library's Evolving English
exhibition (2010-11), the first exhibition to explore the English language
in its national and international diversity. The British Library's Lead
Curator for Sociolinguistics & Education [S8] acknowledges the way
that Beal's contribution to the exhibition content ensured that the `interpretation
had credibility'. The exhibition attracted 147,419 visitors (the
third highest attendance ever for a British Library Exhibition, and the
highest attendance for a winter show by a considerable margin). Beal also
participated in the accompanying public events programme. Her public
lecture `Cuddy-wifters, cack-handers and coochies: a celebration of
regional English' was sold out (attendance of 255) and attracted a very
broad audience. It was also podcast, via the website (151,556 unique
visitors) for the duration of the exhibition and was thus available to a
worldwide audience.

Beal is regularly consulted by national and local radio to explicate
issues of dialect and identity. Recent programmes include Down off the
Pedestals (BBC Radio 4, 2011), in which Beal featured in
conversation with the poet Simon Armitage about the nineteenth-century
poet Samuel Laycock, who wrote in Lancashire dialect; this programme was
also available on the BBC website as a podcast.

Beal's research has attracted attention in the local and national press,
thus raising awareness of the importance of dialect to local identity and
acting as a counterpoint to research and media coverage that emphasises
the loss and levelling of dialects. The reach of Beal's research is
further enabled by her accessible style and lack of pretension. For
instance, Beal's 2009 article on the Arctic Monkeys, originally published
in an academic, peer-reviewed journal (R4), was subsequently the subject
of articles in the Sheffield Star, Yorkshire Post and Independent
newspapers as well as featuring on Arctic Monkeys' fan forums: they quote
her arguing, for instance, that `If there's somebody as prominent as
Alex Turner using a certain accent, it attracts attention [...] Nobody
knew what it meant before, but thanks to them words like "mardy" are
being used nationally' [S9]. In April 2009, she was interviewed by
Ben Leach of the Telegraph on the matter of whether a well-known
singer (Cheryl Cole) should modify her accent in order to succeed in the
USA [S10]. The story was picked up by local and national newspapers from
the Sunday Sun in Newcastle to The Sun, Telegraph,
Metro, and The Scotsman, as well as The Herald
(Ireland). It was also the subject of comment on several fan websites who
admired her defence of the singer/celebrity's Geordie accent.

In sum, against the grain of accepted narratives of centralisation,
standardisation, and globalisation, Beal's work on dialect, accent,
region, and identity has had these specific impacts: it has helped to
sustain confidence in regional identities and ways of speaking, locally
and nationally; it has shaped more responsive methods of assessing
linguistic competence in public examinations; and it has increased public
understanding of the inter-relationship between language and identity.

Sources to corroborate the impact

S1. An email on file from the Head of AQA can corroborate Beal's impact
on A-Level curriculum and assessment.

S2. An email on file from a senior examiner for AQA examiner can
corroborate Beal's impact on A-Level teaching and examination.